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Early Addition
Yesterday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that the State will sue ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Keyspan and Phelps Dodge over a 17-million-gallon oil spill in Newtown Creek that has spread underneath Greenpoint over 100 acres. The spill was detected in 1978, when a Coast Guard pilot noticed an oil plume; oil seeped underground from ExxonMobil refinery and storage operations since the 1950s. Attorney General Cuomo said:
This is one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation, larger than the Exxon Valdez and slower in the cleanup. ExxonMobil must and will be held accountable. The toxic footprint of ExxonMobil is found all over this area. It is ExxonMobil’s oil that remains under the homes and businesses. And it is ExxonMobil that has dragged its feet and done as little as possible to address the dangers that it created.”And while there are four other oil companies who will also receive "Notices of Intent to Sue," the main focus is ExxonMobil, who Cuomo said "has proven itself far less than a model corporate citizen, placing its greed for windfall profits over public safety and the well-being of the environment."
The NY Times says the lawsuit is a "sharp turning point" in the state's "handling of the spill," as there have been some lawsuits but no state action. In 1990, ExxonMobil and the State had an agreement for ExxonMobil to recover spilled oil, but without a deadline. Last year, State Comptroller Alan Hevesi urged the state Department of Environmental Conservation not to negotiate another agreement with ExxonMobil. City Councilman Eric Gioia said of the lawsuit, "I feel like the cavalry just arrived. We've been like David fending off a polluting Goliath."
The state is looking for the oil companies to agree to testing and investigations to see the "full scope" of contamination, recovery of spilled oil, cleanup, restoration of Newtown Creek, and damages for injuries. In other words, lots of money. ExxonMobil says, "We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and have committed substantial resources toward cleaning up the site. Complex remediation projects such as this, where the product to be recovered is under ground and not easily accessible, takes time to complete.” But there's always time to make record profits.
And for comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska was 11 million gallons over 55 acres.
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I don't have any links to information on this, but from what I understand, as the oil was seeping into the ground, or leaking, oil was still very inexpensive (around $3 a barrel? - Perhaps that's why the big oil companies didn't care that it was leaking?) Now it's valued at what, $60 a barrel? Some of the leaked oil is now being "vacuumed up" and resold. So ExxonMobil is actually making a huge profit from this disaster.
Anyone have concrete data on this?
Goes to show that the city in itself is so polluted that not much dust is kicked up over this for years.
And they still haven't paid the punitive damages for Alaska so good luck trying to money out of them on this one!
Still when you only make $40 billion in profit, you can't afford to clean up after yourself.
Anzelina, you're assuming it's free to collect this oil. I have no idea what the cost is but I'm sure it isn't free. For all we know it costs $100 to reclaim a barrel of this oil. If this operation was actually profitable as you say it is, it wouldn't make sense for ExxonMobil to drag their feet over it.
Typical New York liberals whining about oil companies. Yeah, they should clean it up if it's a health hazard. Whining about profits? When you losers go after Goldman Sachs in the same breath we can talk.
@hypocrits: What are you even talking about? Whining? New York liberals? Get yourself together.
@hypocrits: A freaking 17 million gallon oil spill is happening in the middle of the largest city in the nation OVER 30 YEARS. Whining? New York liberals? *if* it is a health hazard?
Get yourself together, man. This is the time and place to pick ExxonMobil apart. Everything they do should be under scrutiny, and politicizing it – like you just initiated – is just ridiculous.
ignore the troll
Jeff, it is perfectly clear that my comment said Exxon should clean up the spill. It is also perfectly clear I said that people should lay off oil companies on the tax issue. Please explain how you could twist this into my support for oil spills.
For more information on the oil spill, the laurel hill/phelps dodge site, and the keyspan site check out http://habitatmap.org/projectmap/mapframeset.html
For more information on the oil spill, the Phelps Dodge/Laurel Hill site, and the Keyspan property visit www.habitatmap.org and view the map.
Although the community is unanimous in its determination to have the spill completely cleaned up and to reclaim the Newtown creek, some question whether the resurfacing of this nearly 30 year old oil spill story is being used to attack the community after it won its rezoning battle against the wishes of Brooklyn based politicians (and divert attention away from cancer cluster issue in Williamsburg). The media reports have not included the fact that: 1) More than half of the 17 million gallon spill has already been cleaned up. 2) The remediation process has been going on, with the blessing of local elected officials, since 1992 and continues. 3) The spill is almost entirely under the remote western industrial section of Greenpoint near the East Williamsburg industrial park. There are a few residential streets near Kingsland Avenue that are above the spill, but the vast majority of residential properties are not involved with the spill. 4) The Newtown Creek runs along Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Maspeth and Bushwick, but the news articles only mention Greenpoint. 5) The Astral Oil Spill in Williamsburg is not being mentioned. 6) Articles keep talking about what the long term health effects of the spill will be, but ignore the fact that the spill had been around for fifty years already and health data shows no abnormal spike in health related issues.
The Riverkeepers Group renamed the Exxon oil spill "The Greenpoint oil spill", in what some think was a mean spirited attempt to malign the Greenpoint community. It is curious to name an environmental tragedy after its victim and not the perpetrator. The Exxon Valdez disaster was not called the Prince William Sound's Alaska Oil spill. The NY Post, in an article on Oct 15th by Angela Montefinise, and Senator Charles Schumer at a press conference on October 16 incorrectly reported that there was a potential cancer cluster in Greenpoint near the oil spill. However, three cases of an extremely rare sarcoma cancer are actually on a single block in Williamsburg (nowhere near the oil spill, not even in the same zip code). One more case is five blocks away and even further away from Greenpoint and the oil spill. In fact, one victim got cancer after residing in the same apartment as an unrelated cancer victim and previous tenant. Sarcomas are a very rare form of cancer, and as reported in the Post article, "You don't see three in one block," Dr. Isaac Eliaz, a California expert on metal detoxification, said. "Someone should be paying attention to this." Dr. Kanti Rai, chief of oncology at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, agreed that it was "worth an investigation." Unfortunately, the Senator is calling for a health study with regard to the oil spill and is ignoring a potentially very serious heath disaster in the Williamsburg community. Neighborhood Roots has reached out numerous times to Senator Schumer's Washington office's communications director Eric Schultz, and Bret Rumbeck who handles environmental issues for the Senator, with no calls being returned.
Curiously, at the same press conference Congressman Anthony Weiner stated that Greenpoint has a 25% higher asthma rate than the rest of the city. The only problem is that the two health studies done by the state and city show the asthma rate in Greenpoint to be between 25% and 50% lower than the rest of the city along with a 10% lower cancer rate. The State DEC is aware of toxic industrial sites in Willliamsburg near Devoe Street that could potentially be the cause of these rare cancers, but no one is calling for that study. "Instead, there seems to be a no holds barred attack on Greenpoint and a blatant disregard for the health concerns of the Willamsburg community". One must question whether the recent support of massive residential development in Williamsburg and the historic resistance from Brooklyn politicians (including Borough President Howard Golden) to residential development along the recently rezoned Greenpoint East River waterfront (not near the spill) has anything to do with this dissemination of lies and the timing of these lawsuits.